Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner announce their first season as new artistic directors of Paines Plough: Live Out Loud.
The Live Out Loud Season celebrates some of the most exciting, distinctive, observant and entertaining voices in British theatre with commissioned writers including: Chris Bush; Chinonyerem Odimba; Phoebe Eclair-Powell; Charlotte Keatley; Chloë Moss; Ifeyinwa Frederick; Charlotte Josephine and Jade Anouka.
The season focuses on platforming ground-breaking playwrights and empowering them to take up space with the stories they want to tell. It’s about embracing and celebrating a plethora of voices from around the country, giving playwrights space to develop, have big ideas and tell bold stories that encourage people to live out loud.
Commissions from a wide and exciting variety of writers will tour across the length and breadth of the UK to city centres, seaside towns and village halls.
In February 2020 Paines Plough will co-produce a new play by award-winning playwright Chloë Moss with Soho Theatre and Sheffield Theatres. Run Sister Run explores the lives of two sisters and the different directions life takes them in as they desperately hold onto their unbreakable bond.
For the first time Roundabout will host a musical as one of the company’s lead productions, with Chinonyerem Odimba’s new work exploring love and relationships with music by Ben and Max Ringham, playing in rep with Chris Bush’s new play investigating food and our dysfunctional relationships with our bodies and Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s new family show about a girl who loses her voice and has a madcap adventure to find it again. In another first, a brand new trailblazer short commission from Charlotte Keatley. Roundabout will once again return to Summerhall, Edinburgh and bring mini-festivals to each stop on its nationwide tour.
New plays from Ifeyinwa Frederick and Charlotte Josephine make the rest of the touring season and the company have also launched two new initiatives: LAMDA Live Lab and The Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Live Lab will be a partnership with LAMDA to collectively explore new ways of working in the Roundabout by experimenting with early-career playwrights alongside some of the most pioneering female playwrights from the last 30 years, with Jade Anouka under commission for 2020. The Women’s Prize for Playwriting in partnership with Ellie Keel Productions and sponsored by PER, will support exceptional UK and Ireland based playwrights chaired by Mel Kenyon with judges including Sarah Frankcom, Tanika Gupta, Kate Packenham, Indhu Rubasingham and Maxine Peake.
Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner said: “We are honoured to be working with such a wealth of talent and experience in our first season. We are also delighted to be working with partners across the country including Sheffield Theatres, Oldham Coliseum Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Soho Theatre, Ellie Keel Productions, LAMDA and also celebrating an existing partnership with Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. These are stories that celebrate what it is to live life out loud, own who you are and speak your truth. They are ready to be heard.”
Sheffield Theatres 27 February – 21 March 2020
Soho Theatre 25 March – 2nd May 2020
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